Hey forum, this is a semi-wall of text so feel free to drive on if you are inclined but one sentence posts are as useful as TOAB. I am a Fallout Player from the start, even played Fallout Tactics. I wanted to post some of my observations after just 20 hours of play. Story wise, I am barely into it having just dealt with Concord. About 5 hours has been spent crafting the settlement and scrapping.

• Dogmeat not being able to die but can be disabled so that he cant help. Fine balance for me because in previous iterations I quickly tired of trying to keep him alive (yes I know some cats were really into that). To me it wasn't worth the hassle. He's like a mascot really, or an amusing sidekick because of his quirks (not bugs, quirks). Like once I got the alert that he had found something. So there he is, sitting on all fours looking at a trio of trees by some diner south of Concord and there I am, looking at him and then looking at the barren trees and literally talking out loud saying "what do you see boy?" There was like nothing in the trees. Did he see a Squirrel? Perhaps a Rad Squirrel? I don't know but it made me laugh. And yes, pack enemies tend to swarm him. I got ambushed by like seven Ghouls in Lexington and they were on Dogmeat like a bad suit on a Baptist minister and the animation made it look like they were tearing him from limb to limb. I couldn't resist the urge to charge in and try to save him, even though kiting had been working fine keeping me alive. I know he's not going to die and he was distracting them from me but I couldn't resist. I am sure its some sort of man-dog coding thing and it worked.
• Speaking of Feral Ghouls, I really like the numerous changes to the Ferals. There have clearly been some AI tweaks as I have seen them ducking and dodging and generally moving more erratically which makes non-VATS targeting challenging. I like the fact that they don't show up on the threat locator and can be playing possum. it adds a new level of "scary" to them. The fact that a ghoul I see lying on the ground may not be dead is awesome and made my journey in the Super Duper Mart very nerve wracking including me getting paranoid to the point that I was putting a bullet in the corpses for good measure. I may be mistaken, transferring what I thought I saw into "fact" but I swear some Ghouls I put down were getting back up, again trying to trick me. I enjoy the added aspect of them crawling out of spaces or smashing through the ceiling yet taking a small amount of time to "get back on their feet". Its a shock that has initiated panic fire at times yet not so much that it is disheartening because of it being some overwhelming gotcha wave. Plus the ones that keep coming with their arms gone. They have succeeded in zombifying the ghouls without actually zombifying them and all done so without taking the easy route and simply making them more powerful like the Reavers in FO3.
• And that is why we come to Mole Rats. Look at it this way. In the X-Men comics, the Toad was a super-lame villain so when they said the Toad was going to be in the first movie I was like "seriously". When the movie came out he was still lame but they had taken the time to make him less lame so that he at least had a purpose. Mole Rats are the Toad. never in the Fallout franchise have I considered Mole Rats a threat, no less intimidating but with the addition of the burrowing mechanic and their seemingly increased speed they are at least a challenge at low level. Sure I can 1 or 2 shot kill them still but their speed and when in numbers paired with the burrowing makes them at least something to pay attention to.
• Bloodbugs - WTF? At least they aren't Cazadores.
• Power Armor Reinvisioned - Yeah I like it way better now. I rarely used PA in any previous Fallout game . . . there were too many negatives to me especially since you could pretty much get the job done in Combat Armor. The fact that it is essentially a vehicle that requires power to run is the key to why this works. Yes I got a suit early via the quests and I had two Fusion Cores, but I soon realized that I was burning through the first one. It means I have to use it sparingly, when I really need to. Now it is early in the game and I don't know how many more cores are around or if they can be recharged, but to me this is a good balancing mechanism. And for anyone who things the deal is overpowered I got killed three times by a Deathclaw in a specific area in that Power Armor, red-tipping Ole Painless' barrels.
• Settlement Building - Bottom Line Up Front - Super! Sure there are bugs and issues with snapping and the lack of deep dive instructions on building are frustrating. Trial and error is fun for a while then its drudgery. I am hopeful that these kinks will work themselves out as patches roll out. I would like higher power poles.
• Weapon/Armor Crafting - Unlike settlements, I don't get off so much on this. Personally I think there is too much weapon crafting here and needs to be thinned out a bit but I know that I am in the distinct minority in this area so i am gonna operate under the principle that I don't have a dog in this fight. I am no min-maxer and more of a looks over numbers guy so craft away as long as expansions and/or improvements to the game are not built around adding "moar crafting!". Gimme a DLC where I go to Detroit or Philly not fifty new pipe pistol mods.
• Minor compliments - Bravo Lite Bright Pip-Boy. Love the pre-war character creation story. Weather and nighttime effects are enjoyable ambiance. Radiation Storm was a surprising jarring deal when I first experienced it.

All in all I am very pleased with the game so far.